Dessert Recipes

I was standing in the produce aisle last Tuesday, staring at a bin of Honeycrisp apples, when a scent hit me — not from the … Read more

I wasn’t expecting to get a baking lesson from a plumber, but there I was, standing in the hardware aisle at the local True Value, … Read more

There used to be a tiny bakery tucked behind a used bookstore in Portland called The Gilded Pear that made an apple cider cake that … Read more

Hand me that bag of apples, my sister-in-law said, barely looking up from the stove. I’d stopped by to borrow a ladder, of all things, … Read more

I was standing in the middle of Target last October, right between the seasonal candy aisle and the baking supplies, when a woman walked past … Read more

There used to be this little bakery tucked into a brick building on the corner of Maple and Third—a place called The Copper Kettle. They … Read more

Introduction My neighbor, an older woman named Betty who gardens in her bathrobe every Saturday morning, watched me struggling with a batch of sticky, failed … Read more

My neighbor, a woman named Carol who once told me she “doesn’t do cute food,” had avoided Halloween baking for her entire adult life. She … Read more

My sister-in-law Jen wasn’t trying to impress anyone that Tuesday. I’d stopped by to drop off a casserole dish she’d lent me, and the smell … Read more

I wasn’t expecting to find baking wisdom from our apartment building’s maintenance guy, but there I was, locked out of my kitchen on a Tuesday … Read more